Sugamo Prison Site (Sunshine 60)

Sugamo Prison (巣鴨拘置所, Sugamo Kōchisho) was a major detention facility located in what is now Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima Ward, Tokyo. Originally constructed in 1895 during the Meiji era, modeled on European prison designs, it initially served as a regular criminal detention center. During the 1930s and 1940s, it became notorious for housing political prisoners, including communists and dissidents arrested under Japan's Peace Preservation Laws (治安維持法).

The prison survived the firebombing of Tokyo in 1945 largely undamaged. Following Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) requisitioned the facility and renamed it "Sugamo Prison," using it to detain suspected war criminals pending trial. At its peak (January 1950), the prison held about 1,900 detainees (1,862 by one count), including high-ranking military officers, government officials, and industrialists accused of Class-A, B, and C war crimes.

The most significant event in Sugamo Prison's history occurred on December 23, 1948, when seven Class-A war criminals sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were executed by hanging. The seven were: former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo (東條英機), former Prime Minister Koki Hirota (廣田弘毅), General Seishiro Itagaki (板垣征四郎), General Kenji Doihara (土肥原賢二), General Heitaro Kimura (木村兵太郎), General Iwane Matsui (松井石根), and Lieutenant General Akira Muto (武藤章). Their executions were carried out through the infamous "Door No. 13," and their remains were cremated at Kuboyama Crematorium in Yokohama. Including those convicted in the Yokohama War Crimes Trials, a total of approximately 60 war criminals were executed at Sugamo.

The prison was returned to Japanese custody in 1952 following the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and it continued to house convicted war criminals serving their sentences. The last inmates were released in 1958 and the war-criminal prison was closed (some sources date the formal closure to 1962); the site reverted to use as the Tokyo Detention House until that institution moved to Kosuge in 1971, when the buildings were demolished.

In 1978, the Sunshine City commercial complex opened on the former prison grounds. Its centerpiece, the 60-story Sunshine 60 skyscraper (239.7 meters), was at the time of completion the tallest building in Asia. The adjacent Higashi-Ikebukuro Central Park (東池袋中央公園), which opened in 1979, occupies the area where the execution grounds once stood. In a corner of the park, partially hidden by trees on slightly elevated ground, stands a modest stone monument erected in 1980 bearing the inscription "永久平和を願って" (Pray for Eternal Peace). The reverse side of the monument reads: "After World War II, sentences imposed by the Far East Military Tribunal and other Allied war crimes tribunals were executed at this location. To prevent the tragedy of war from ever recurring, this monument is erected at this historic site."

Today, millions of shoppers and visitors pass through Sunshine City each year, most unaware of the dark history beneath their feet. The small memorial stone remains the sole physical reminder of the prison and the executions that took place on these grounds.